Blasting-powder composition



@Patented 1, 1 925 U I ED) STATES. PATENT .IOFFIVCE'."

CARL D. PRATT, F TAMAQUA, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOB, TO .TLAS POWDER COM- PANY, OF WILMINGTON, DELAWARE, A CORPORATION 01' DELAWARE.

BLASTING-POWDER COMPOSITION.

. K0 Drawing.

To all whom it may concem:

Be it ln' own that CARL D. PRA'rr, citizen of the United States, residing at Tamaqua,

.in the county of Schuylkill and State of itPennsylvania, has invented certain new an useful Improvements in Blasting-Powder Compositions, of which the following is a specification. V

My invention relates to improvements in blasting powder compositions, and it has for its object to provide a new and highly useful commercial blasting explosive which will possess characteristics of safety far beyond those of ordinary black blasting powder;

The record of the Bureau of Mines of the United States, covering the period from 1908 to 1923, shows that seventy-one coal mine explosions ha ve been caused directl by the use of black blasting powder or hy black blastin powder and dynamite, killing more than eight hundred men, injurin many others and causing untold property r lamage. This serious situationcan be largely corrected by the substitution, for black blasting owder, of what are known as permissi- 1e explosives, that is explosives which [have passed-certain tests prescribed by the Bureau of Mines. Testsconducted bysaid 8 bureau,-and verified in actual coal mining operations, have demonstrated conclusively that a permissible explosive has a very much shorter andcooler flame than black blastingpowder and a very much cooler flame than any other highexplosive.

With .the foregoing facts in mind it has been my aim to IOVl'dB a series of blastin powder compositions, which have decrease tendencies,- compared with current com- 40 mercial grades of blasting powder, to ignite inflammable gases and dusts or. mixtures thereof; as for example, those occurring in coal mines. g

- .It should be expressly understood that 'my invention is not concerned with so-called high explosives ,.but is concerned entirel v with the type of so-called low explosives herein referred to as blasting powders. High explosives include both indi vidual compounds and mixturesof ingredients, which are able to suddenly decompose in the manner of a detonation, through al-.

most instantaneous disintegrations and renite inflammable gases an v tures thereof); through the discovery that. carbohydrates and metallic and ammonium Application filed May, 31, 1924. Serial no, mm.

actions, as influenced by heat or shock or both. Low explosives on the other hand, consist only of mixtures of ingredients, of such nature as to react with each other, in

dthe. form of a rapid combustion, as distinguished from a sudden disintegration, when influenced by heat. 'It is a peculiarity of high -explosives that they decompose with a much higher speed than low ex losives,

thus exerting quicker and more. isruptive actions than the slower and consequently more propulsive low explosives.

My im roved blasting powders may,

properly, e referred to as safety blasting powders, since they are safer foruse under gaseous and dusty conditions, such as coalmining, than the current blastingpowders,

just as permissible high explosives are safer for use in coal-mines than straight nitro glycerinedynamites or gelatins.

As a res 1t. fa very exhaustive study of many principles and extensive experimentationin following out these principles in a very lar e number of mixtures, I have been 1 able to with decreased tendencies, (compared with current commercial blasting IZiOWgQIkS) to i us or mixchlorides, when added to blasting powder evise a series of blasting powders,

tallio nitrates,'sulphur and one or more materials that are essentially carbon, will of fectively produce these improvements 'm combination or singly.

the chemical constitutions of blasting (pow-.

ders, of greater amounts of carbon an hydro en in proportion with oxygen tent of markedly decreasingthe amounts of heat evolvedby the decomposition reactions of such compositions. v

I have also found that metallic and am- Ca-rboh drates, I have found, such Y llulose, glucose, starchand the like,

to the exmonium chlorides, such as sodium chloride,

otassium chloride, barium chloride, am-

i ionium chloride and the like, produce the I v desired decreased tendencies. to ignite inflammable gases and dusts or mixtures therecompositions, consisting of one or more me- 85 the deof, when in intimate contact with powder composition reactions of blastin compositions,especially' those one or more carbohydrates,through their heat absorbing abilities.

' Further, I have discovered that blasting powder compositions, including carbohydrates and metallic and ammonium chlorides, in combination, or singly, to su1t requirements, together with the usual blasting powder ingredients, (metallic nltrates, sulhur and materials that are essentially car- Eon), will actually have several times less tendency to ignite inflammable gases and dusts or'mixtures thereof, than the current commercial grades of blasting powders. That is, charges of my safety blasting powders (hereinbefore defined) that I am able to fire into certain inflammable gases and dusts or mixtures thereof, without igniting them, are several timesv the weight of current commercial blasting powder charges, which will ignite the same inflammable gases and dusts or mixtures thereof, under like conditions.

It should be expressly understood that the scope of my invention is broad enough to inelude any manner of introduction of the cooling ingredients; namely carbohydrates and metallic and ammonium chlorides. That is, the said cooling ingredient or ingredients may be introduced in various manners, to suit conditions; as for instance, actual in.- corporation with the other ingredients or incorporationwith only a portion of the other ingredients or included as separate granules but mixed with granules of the other ingredientsor with the grains of commercial grades of blasting powders, etc.

It should also be expressly understood that the scope'of my invention is not limited to any particular physical form, of safety blasting powders. That is, the physical form of said safety blasting powders may vary in any manner whatsoever, to suit commercial application; as for instance, granules, pellets, powders, cubes, 0 linders, etc.

Summarizing,- my safety b asting powders consist of one or more carbohydrates 111 any practicable .quantity (preferably from 5m 35%) and one or more metallic or ammonium chlorides (preferably from 1 to 15%), used inc mbination or singly with practicable co inations of metallic nitrates, sulphur andmaterials that are essentially carbon. Other ingredients may also be added to the above'in minor quantities and still be. within the scope. of my inven- 'tion; such as organic or inorganic compounds, that will absorb heat through the reuction of oxygen or by their volatilization durin the decomposition reactions or by their iberation of water of crystallization or combination of such causes.

including My investigations indicate that I may vary the physical characteristics of, my improved safety blasting powders through variation of their densities, granulations, physical forms, etc., and produce similar effectiveness to the grades of blasting powders now used in the coal-mines of the United States with the advantage of being less apt to cause the very terrible coal-mine disastersthat occur when inflammable gas and dust mixtures, contained therein, are ignited. I

may also see fit to add other ingredients to no safety blasting powders, as hereinbefore defined, in order to produce the most desirable combinations of effectiveness and safety.

If carried into effect, through substitution of the above described safety blasting powders for all the present types of socalled blasting powders, used in American coal mines, my invention will causethe improvement,hereinb efore described, of over 7 0% of all the explosives, used for blasting coal in the United States.

(See United States Bureau of Mines Technical Paper #340-page 9.)

Having described my invention, what I claim is:

1. An explosive of the character described consisting of the constituents of black blasting powder, from 5 to 35% of carbohydrates, and from 1 to 15% ofa metallic chloride.

2. A blasting powder of the class described consisting of a metallic nitrate, sulphur'and carbon, the whole constituting blaoklblast ing powder to which combination is added from 5 to 35% of carbohydrates and 1 to sodium chloride.

affixes, his signa- In testimony whereof he CARL n. PRATT.

ture. 

